End the criminalisation of left-wing structures -- for the immediate cessation of the 129(a) investigations!

Statement by the accused and their
supporters in four §129(a) cases

In the last year four terrorism investigations of left-wing activists have been uncovered, which has led to wide spread criticism of the
practices of the investigation authorities. Away from the eyes of the
public the investigations in all four cases are still ongoing and with
them the surveillance operations of over 40 people. Although the Federal
Court judges devolved one of the cases from the remit of the Federal
Prosecution to that of the regional authorities already in November and
December 2007, the files have still not been passed on. In another case
potentially exonerating evidence is not being released by the federal
investigation authorities. Tomorrow is the anniversary of three of the
cases being made public for the first time.

On May 9th 2007 officers of the Federal Criminal Investigation Office
stormed 40 appartments, offices and projects of left-wing activists. The
official justification was the search for a terrorist organisation
"militant campaign to prevent the G8 summit". The Germany-wide searches
were the high point of repression against social movements and left-wing
activists in the run up to the G8 summit last year in Heiligendamm.
Amongst those affected by the searches were three people from Berlin who
at the time had already been subject to a seven year long investigation
due to alleged membership in a terrorist organisation ("militant group").

Shortly after these Germany-wide searches, the appartments of young
antifascists in Bad Oldesloe and Berlin were searched. Here the charge
was also: formation of a terrorist organisation under §129a of German
criminal law.

Further proceedings against alleged members of a "militant group" led to
arrests on July 31st 2007. The public protests against the imprisonment
of Dr Andrej Holm led to the suspension of the custodial warrant by the
Federal Courts. A further decision led the Federal Courts to bail three
further people who were in custody and repealed the use of terrorism
legislation in their cases.

All four cases began as §129a investigations due to the suspicion of
membership in a terrorist organisation. In at least two of the four
cases the Office for the Protection of the Constitution initiated the
investigations and partly also steered them in a particular direction.
In the meantime, in three of the four cases, the Federal Court judges
have criticised the investigation authorities, have questioned whether
the cases fall under the remit of the Federal Prosecution and the
Federal Criminal Investigation Office, and in all cases have repealed
the use of the terrorism legislation §129a.

In all four cases the extent of surveillance exceeded the legal limits.
In some cases, over many years, surveillance measures were regularly
extended by the judges, even though complete surveillance had not
yielded any clues that might have confirmed original suspicions. This
coincides with the following logic: If no clues are found that
substantiate the suspicions, the accused is behaving conspiratorially,
which then strengthens the suspicion. Thus, evermore surveillance
measures were granted that invaded evermore of the privacy of the
accused individuals and included evermore of the surrounding
relationships of those affected. The absurd epitome of this logic was
the forced collection of scent specimens.

The Federal Criminal Investigation Office and the secret services are
not subject to any control mechanisms. In the process of these four
cases it is apparent that neither the judges nor parliamentary instances
have any capacities to limit the activities of the security authorities.
As the files in these four cases show, the protection of core areas of
people's private lives, the protection of employment privacy and legal
protections have had no influence on the Federal Office for the
Protection of the Constitution.

The Criminal Investigation Office must not be allowed to exercise secret
service activities. The practices of the Criminial Investigation Office
are a not in line with the existing legislation. The extension of the
remit of the Criminal Investigation Office is taking place with which
new investigative and secret service activities are to be enabled.

The total surveillance of the left-wing scene has to stop. The §§129, a
and b have to be abolished. The searches on May 9th, according to the
authorities’ own admissions, have not served to solve any crimes. With
more than 40 accused and about 2 000 people in total falling under the
remit of these investigations, the §129(a) legislation is being used to
ensure a complete surveillance and intimidation of the left-wing scene.
According to the information in the files to date, more than 200
judicial decisions have enabled the surveillance of about 100 telephone
connections, 60 email addresses and the video surveillance of at least
20 residential addresses. With at least 14 bugging operations and the
use of 12 tracking devices, surveillance technology has also been used
extensively. Independently of concrete suspicions such §129(a)
investigations primarily serve to spy on left-wing structures.

We demand the immediate cessation of all §129(a) investigations and the
abolition of the spy legislation 129, a, b!

Source: Some of those charged in four §129(a) proceedings and supporters | 08.05.2008